Comments (0)Correction
March 19, 2010The author’s name of the March 4 article “A Teen Fights ALS” at jewishtimes.com was incorrectly reported. It is by Sierra Levin.
UN Woes
March 19, 2010Your excellent Feb 26 Editorial “U.N. Insanity” was most interesting about the UN Relief Works Agency for Palestine Refugees who are holding a soccer tournament “named after a self-described terrorist.”
While, it was good that the B’nai Brith International sent a letter to the (UNRWA) Commissioner to protest against this team, there is something else just as important, if not, more crucial that I would like to see the B’nai Brith address. That is, another kind of insanity related to the anti-Semitism that I read about in a recent article by Prof. Steven Plant entitled: “Jew vs. Jew”. It was something that I was shocked to learn about but he explains it in a way we all need to understand.
Dr. Plaut admitted that Jew vs. Jew ”sounds like a contradiction in terms. An oxymoron. If only it were.” He stated the following. “Jewish anti-Semitism is a modern disease. The world is experiencing an explosion of it. Among the most malicious and venomous of all bigots, Jewish anti-Semites are at the forefront of just about every smear campaign against Israel and other Jews.” He continued.
“Such Jews are leaders in the campaigns to boycott and divest from Israel. A number of them make pilgrimages to the terrorist camps of Hamas and Hizbullah, with some even rationalizing or justifying terrorist atrocities against Jews. Such Jews pioneered the smear campaign painting Israel as an apartheid regime. Denouncing Israel as equivalent to Nazi Germany is their favorite pastime.”
He advocated: “Western campuses are crawling with them. A Jewish judge chaired the UN commission that demonized Israel over Operation Cast Lead. A Jewish member of Britain’s Parliament compared Hamas terrorists to Jewish fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto and denounced Israel as a Nazi entity.” Israelis and ex-Israelis comprise a shocking large number of this group.”
Dr. Plaut make it clear that although “Most Jews dismiss such people as “self-hating .” he disagrees and said: “that term is misleading. These rogues do not hate themselves. Indeed, they are maters of narcissism. They hate other Jews and wish them harm.” How can that be!
He continues: “These are not assimilationists of Jewish descent who have simply lost interest in their Jewish heritage or are indifferent to Jewish history and Israel. No, these Jews often make a point out of waving their own Jewish ‘roots’ as artillery support for their extremist positions.” While I could not possibly quote everything in his very long article but one example that he gave that shocked me the most was the following: He stated:
“Take Professor Shlomo Sand, a hard-core-leftist on the history faculty of Tel Aviv University. Sand last year published a book claiming to prove Jews are not and never have been a ‘people.’ Recycling myths popularized by neo-Nazi websites. Sand’s book is a pseudo-analysis that claims most Jews today are frauds, converts, from the Khazar Turkic tribe, impersonators of Jews. All real Jews, according to the learned professor, became Palestinian Arabs centuries ago. Hence Israeli ‘Jews’ are not Jews at all, and certainly have no right to their own state.” If you think this is bad, it gets worse.
But, obviously I cannot quote the whole article which was enormously long. However, I suggest that our Jewish community get a copy of this article via .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or go on line and click Jewish Press February 12, 2010 edition and click on Steven Plaut’s article.
As your Jewish Times editorial reminds us. Sure, we have big troubles with the insanity of the UN but also with the EU, the Arab anti- Israel and anti-Semitism and this other kind of anti-Semitism that Dr. Plaut speaks of. This is our own insanity.
Better to educated and correct ourselves first before we try to change our Arab enemies. Maybe it’s this other kind of self-inflicting anti-Semitism of so many misguided and miss-informed Jews that is causing our enemies to continue to want to kill us and sell out Israel and/or destroy Israel. Therefore, we can’t say “Never Again” anymore and really mean it if we allow this other kind of anti-Semitism to go on unabated. We all have a responsibility to acknowledge and deal with this problem, especially our B’nai Brith leaders.
Barbara A. Bloom
Owings Mills
Eye On Farrakhan
March 12, 2010Should Rev. Louis Farrakhan’s remarks, lies, accusations and insinuations continue to be reported, as asked by Neil Rubin in his March 5 blog “Farrakhan’s Back” on jewish times.com? I think most definitely, on many levels, for many reasons, ranging from “Know Thine Enemy,” to being able to debunk and disprove the outrageous statements, and to be able to address the issues (some actually legitimate) that he uses to inflame and divide his target audience.
A common mistake that a lot of people make is taking the term “African-American community” at face value and thinking that there are not different sets of beliefs, desires, values and misconceptions within the said “community.” Being often at “street level” as I am — on the bus and in the ’hood, as well as mixing and associating with a more assimilated segment of black society — I see and hear radically different and disparate views and opinions of Jews and Judaism, and our stereotypes that at times are in parallel with neo-Nazis and white supremacists, hard as that may be to believe.
Unless we know the transmitters and receivers of the Rev. Farrakhan’s at times vitriolic hatred, how can we counter and properly inform and then invite in and listen to those whom the dialogue is most intended and needed to reach?
Thanks and keep watching and reporting.
Dave Cluster
Pikesville
Great Outdoors
March 12, 2010We were thrilled going through the February 12 “Camps 2” special section and looking at all of the camping opportunities available to our children.
Last year, our son, Joe, attended Jewish overnight camp for the first time thanks to a $1,000 Campership Incentive Grant received from the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore and the Foundation for Jewish Camp. Joe had a wonderful time at Capital Camps. Each letter he sent us was bursting with enthusiasm for his new-found friends and activities. His summer experience certainly cemented his already strong Jewish identity. It also brought back fond memories of our own experiences at Jewish overnight camp. We are thrilled to be sending Joe back to Capital Camps for a second summer, this time receiving a $750 returning-camper incentive grant from the Associated.
We encourage anyone still looking for the right place to send his or her second- to 12th-grader this summer to consider the warmth and richness of Jewish overnight camp. Campership incentive grants are still available. For more information visit associated.org/camp .
Cindy and Howard Bernstein
Baltimore
Welcome Comfort
March 12, 2010Regarding Phil Jacobs’ March 5 Editor’s Notebook “Medical Marijuana,” I have to respond with real empathy regarding his view of his mother’s feelings as she became increasingly disabled and (unfortunately, also) in pain as a result of her MS. It doesn’t matter what the etiology, we who face the decline of our health, strength and the resultant lack of independence want to be remembered by our family and friends as we were when we were strong and vital.
Recently, my daughter’s family had to “put down” their beloved dogs. The first time, the whole family sat on the floor at the vet with hands on their dear pet and watched the IV placed in his vein and the medication slowly go into the animal. They saw that there was no pain. It was a totally humane experience for their precious dog, as well as for them. They were much distressed, but much less so for being a part of this very loving goodbye to their beloved Ben.
Unfortunately, his companion dog, Kate, had to be put down about nine months later. The children were less distraught than they might have been had they not had the experience of witnessing the demise of the older dog.
I had to think how blessed it would be for humans to have the same grace. Realizing full well how difficult it is to make this decision (who will live and who will die), I have to feel that the blessing of relief of pain given by marijuana would be totally appropriate for any and all of us as we reach the disabilities resulting from pain at the end of life.
Judy Pachino
Baltimore
Sacred Hebron
March 12, 2010In regard to the Purim protesters written about in the March 5 article “A Different Take,” before they don their ridiculous signs and protest against what they judge to be Israeli apartheid in Hevron (Hebron), I would like to know how much of Hevron’s history these demonstrators know.
Do they know Hevron was a Canaanite city founded in 1727 B.C.E. and that its more than three and one-half millennia of inextricable history with the Jewish people began approximately 50 years later when, for an exorbitant price, Abraham bought the Cave of Makhpelah from Efron the Hittite to be the burial site for his wife, Sarah?
Do they know Hevron is the final resting place for all three Hebrew Patriarchs and three of the four Matriarchs (and Esau’s head) and was reconnoitered by Joshua’s spies, conquered by Calev ben Yefuneh, designated as a Levitical city of sanctuary (‘Ir Miklat), served as the first royal seat for King David who was anointed there as king of all Israel, fortified by David’s grandson Rehav’am, lost to the Edomites, recaptured from the Seleucids by Judah Maccabeus and his nephew John Hyrcanus, ruled by Herod who built the walls that surround the Cave of Makhpelah, liberated by Shimon bar Giora, burned by the Roman commander Cerealius, ruled by the Byzantines, conquered by the Arabs, lost to the Crusaders, retaken by the Muslims, ruled by the Ottoman sultans, administered by the British and handed over to Jordan until it was recaptured by the Jewish State of Israel in 1967?
Do they know Hevron was the site of numerous massacres of its Jews by Christians and Arab and non-Arab Muslims, the most famous of which in 1929 saw nearly 20 percent of the city’s Jewish population wounded and/or killed? Do they know of the many oppressive taxes and expulsions enacted to drive the Jews out of Hevron? Do they know Jews purchased more than 200 acres of land in Hevron during the 19th century?
Do they know Hevron’s holiest site, the building containing the Cave of Makhpelah, has served at various times as a church or mosque, for 700 years Jews were barred entry into the building (1267-1967) and were allowed no farther than the seventh step of the front entrance, and that even today more than 80 percent of the building and most likely the caves themselves are still under the sole and absolute control of the Muslim Waqf and inaccessible to Jews for prayer but for 10 days each year?
Or at least do they know who said, “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity,” as written by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther, Jr. in his 1936 book “Strength to Love”?
Samuel Zygler
Baltimore
Pie Slicing
March 5, 2010I find it ludicrous that the owners/operators of the Suburban House blame their decision not to rebuild at their current site on the lack of cooperation of the neighboring businesses (“Unexpected Move,” Feb. 1).
Each and every business surrounding them realizes that parking for their customers is a premium and as such has taken steps to insure that there is dedicated parking, and some have even gone so far as to offer valet service for their customers. Further, Baltimore County has street parking on both sides of Reisterstown Road and a public parking lot located directly across the street from the Suburban House on Sherwood Avenue that offers more than 40 spaces for their customers to utilize at no cost. Why they actually chose not to rebuild at their current location is still a mystery, but to lay blame on their neighboring businesses who are working just as hard to get their slice of the pie is unfair.
Anita Wilson
Baltimore
Just Stop It!
You may call it a spoof. I call it a defamation of character. I don’t find the topic of sexual molestation or harassment funny. Once again, the Jewish Times went out of its way to defame the name of a good rabbi and to defame the name of a wonderful shul by associating both with the topic of impropriety and Tiger Woods (“Purim Spoof 2010,” Feb. 26).
Although the name Liberty Jewish Center has been retired for 10 years, many people still associate the name with the current MMAE. The shul was never a part of the original story, but this publication kept throwing it in the middle, as if it were. It’s time for the Jewish Times to stop it. Stop defaming the name of the shul and stop defaming the name of a good rabbi who has suffered enough. You owe both an apology.
Larry Dobres
Baltimore,/i>
Havana Bound
March 5, 2010Thank you for your extensive coverage of our family’s October 2009 trip to Cuba (“Havana Bound,” Feb. 26). It certainly helped present a vivid picture of Cuba’s Jewish community and the myriad needs that are being met by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC).
Baltimoreans should feel especially proud of the work the JDC is doing in Cuba. As an overseas partner of the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, the JDC receives funding from the Associated, ensuring that Jews in communities around the globe are cared for and protected. For the 1,500 Jews living in Cuba, the JDC is a lifeline meeting their basic needs and connecting them to their Jewish heritage. As a Baltimorean, I am thrilled that the fund-raising work the Associated does in our community can make such a profound difference for Jews facing challenging times thousands of miles away.
Glenn L. Weinberg
Chair, Center for Funds and Foundations
The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore
Prudish?
March 5, 2010We enjoy reading the “Beshert” page every week. It’s wonderful to see the faces of the newly-married couples. At the risk of appearing “prudish,” I question the importance of reporting details of their time together at hotels, trips, etc., before their “big day.”
I know that our teenagers read these articles, and while they are not naive these days, I think it would not diminish the quality of these articles about their simchahs to leave some of these details out.
Herta Baitch
Baltimore
Sad Story
March 5, 2010The controversy regarding the Sabbath elevator at Strathmore Towers is sad for many reasons.
While majority rule ultimately trumps when it comes to condomium policy, boards ignore “the golden rule” at their own peril. By refusing to accommodate their
Orthodox neighbors and failing to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” boards create an atmosphere that will ultimately have a negative effect on future condo sales.
As the population of the Park Heights corridor ages, the Orthodox elderly who wish to remain near their children and synagogues are comprising a larger segment of the market.
Condominiums are a popular option when these seniors downsize. Similarly, a condo is often an affordable first step into the housing market for young Orthodox couples.
As a result, those condominiums that are willing to be “Sabbath Friendly” will attract Sabbath observant buyers who are willing to pay a premium for these conveniences.Buildings that ignore the demographics of the neighborhood may find themselves free of those pesky Orthodox folks — but facing a greatly diminished spectrum of buyers as they put their condos up for sale.
In this case it may truly pay to be a mentsch.
Cronshi Englander
Baltimore